April 2007 Archives

From Mark Stricherz's comments on the Virginia Tech horror:

"Libertarianism offers nothing to those who suffer from severe mental illness. It is the political philosophy of entrepreneurs, sexual liberationists, artists, and the wealthy."

Please pray for Cpl. Jennifer M. Parcell's family. Cpl. Parcell was a Marine on Okinawa that went to Iraq. She had to search a female victim in Iraq and when she was searching the victim, the victim detonated a bomb attached to her killing Cpl. Parcell and herself.

I am upset about this cause I knew her and she just turned 20.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE MARINES SERVING UNDER III MEF AND III MLG, I am III MLG

Via the Daily Eudemon: Wal-Mart to open 400 in-store clinics.

I am not crazy about Wal-Mart, but this could be a really good idea, particularly if the clinics are open extended hours. One of the factors driving up health care costs is the high number of patients going to emergency rooms for matters that are urgent but not life-threatening: ear infections, bladder infections, stuff like that. They do this because they can't afford to take off work to visit the doctor or because they can't get in to see the doctor at all.

I ran into this the other day. My husband's out of town on business, so it's just me and Hambet this week. I'd had the flu last weekend and had thought I was on the mend, but then I woke up in the wee hours of the morning with severe pain in my left ear.

I called my doctor early the next morning. (By that time I was having difficulty hearing and my right ear was starting to fill up as well.) It was 7:10 and I had to leave soon to drop Hambet off at school and then go to work.

Well, the office told me I couldn't be seen until 2:30. "But all I need is someone to look in my ear...." "Sorry, can't see you until 2:30." Problem was, 2:30 was when I needed to be leaving to pick Hambet up at school. And even if I'd managed to find someone who could pick him up for me, that meant that I probably wouldn't be able to start antibiotics until 3:30 at the very earliest. With my eardrums feeling like they were about to pop, I really wanted to be seen sooner than that.

So I said no thanks and decided to go to an urgent care center -- a "doc in the box" type place. But after I dropped off Hambet, I reconsidered. "Doc in the box" wouldn't open for another hour -- and was half an hour's drive in the wrong direction. The emergency room was five minutes away. So I decided to try the E.R.

I was optimistic when I walked in -- the waiting room was empty -- but right after I signed in the paramedics brought in three vomiting old ladies. I ended up waiting almost three hours before I was seen, but I was still able to start the antibiotics that much earlier. As I was being discharged, I remarked to the nurse that I felt silly coming to the E.R. for a mere ear infection, but the urgent care center was so far away, and so on.... "Oh, don't worry about it," she said. "They would have sent you here anyway."

And for all my impatience, I had the luxury of taking half a day off work to try to get seen right away. I was also doing better than when I had an ear infection a couple of years ago. My doctor couldn't see me for two days, I didn't want to mess with the E.R., my ear was killing me, and I ended up doing the Bad Thing and mooching a leftover bottle of unexpired amoxicillin from a friend.

That was before I'd found out about Minute Clinics. When we were living in Maryland, a couple of pharmacies near us had opened "Minute Clinics" -- drop-in clinics with extended hours (and fixed prices) for treating limited conditions (ear infections, sore throats, etc.) We'd gone there for flu shots before and that would have been a good option in this situation. But alas, no Minute Clinics in Virginia as yet. I wonder if Wal-Mart clinics would be along the same line.

Well, I guess I would lose my already endangered blogger cred if I didn't say something about Don Imus. So here it is: Good riddance.

Now, what about his enablers -- the guests, sponsors, and networks that kept him and his foul mouth on the air all these years? Really, they're like a bunch of kids who egg on the class clown but play dumb when he gets caught and leave him to take the punishment alone.

Imus wasn't born yesterday (unless by "yesterday" you mean "sometime during the Holocene Epoch") . He wouldn't have been filling up airtime with that kind of trash if he thought he'd get in trouble for it. The networks were paying him to be coarse and vulgar. So he did coarse and vulgar, and was paid big bucks to push people's buttons, and he happen to push the wrong button during a slow news week and now he's been hung out to dry.

"We are shocked -- shocked! -- that he would say such a thing!" If anyone should be apologizing to the Rutgers team, it should be CBS and MSNBC, for putting Imus on the air and giving him the idea that it would be remotely okay to say such a thing. (Followed by the record execs who are getting rich off the filthy rap music that puts slurs like that out there.)

People who don't use words like that don't have to apologize for them. Our society had boundaries and rules for a reason. But when you're always trying to "push boundaries" and "be edgy" it's only a matter of time before you fall over the cliff.

I actually feel bad for the guy. My husband thinks he was probably always a closet racist. My poor husband is super jaded and thinks that about most people. Hemight be right, but I think Imus suffers more form stupidity than racism. The man has been on the air stating his thoughts about everything under the sun for like 40 years now. He was bound to say something really stupid. After all that time clocked in as an established radio personality, he probably mistakenly thought he was "down" enough to use more ebonically-centric language to speak his mind. He forgot for a second that only people of certain skin colors are permitted to use that type of vernacular. You see, had he been black, no one would notice if he used the term "nappy-headed hos".

So what is the result? The Al Sharptons (most especially Al) see an opportunity to cash in and make a mountain of a mole hill and set us all back another 20 years in race relations.

I am not saying Imus should not have been reprimanded, his language was wrong and offensive. He most certainly should have been. Racially charged or not, offensive language should not be acceptable. But his comments are not an example of everyday racism that injures the average American. And the circus that ensues contributes more to the average, everyday racism. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that when white people see so much attention being drawn to the remark "nappy headed" they are baffled and think minorities love to make mountains out of mole hills. I have heard white people say that black people use these situations as an opportunity to get something for nothing. I think that is true for Jesse and Al. Not for me, or my family.

Recently my husband was up for a promotion at his job. He was passed up before he was even offered the position for a white person with much less seniority and a number of write-ups (where my husband has none) by a manager that has no compunction by freely calling people "Buckwheat" and using the 'n' word. I doubt that Imus using the term "nappy headed" has any influence on this manager's ignorance, and Al Sharpton has done nothing to improve race relations for the everyday average minority.

Interesting article on caffeine addiction.

I only drink one cup of coffee a day because more caffeine than that makes me a bit nuts. But if I skip a day, I am a very cranky Mommy!

Which is the perfect lead in to this: